Heretofore, prior art has consisted of aquarium filters which must be mounted and operated from beneath the aquarium, usually situated within a framed structure of some sort and usually consealed by cabinet doors. These types of aquarium filter systems tend to have numerous parts and accessories, and hence a great deal of time is required for set-up. Other problems I perceive with the prior art filters include: excessive evaporation and hence loss of aquarium tank water; it is very difficult to match the output of the pump which pumps water from the filter underneath the aquarium tank back up to the aquarium tank, with the syphon intake into the filter from the aquarium (if they are not synchronized filter starvation or filter overflow will occur); excessive valves are required and they must be perfectly set in order to achieve inflow to outflow synchronization; pumps are usually submerged in the filter tank making them difficult to clean or service; syphon water flow to the filter tank is sometimes lost due to evaporation of the aquarium water level. My invention precludes these difficulties and problems as will be revealed within this specification.